Four Directions You Can Take Your Industrial Conveyor Systems And The Benefits Of Each
Conveyor belts are no longer "roll horizontally one direction" modes of factory transportation. You have options. Conveyor belts can now take your factory's lines in four directions. Here are the four directions for today's industrial conveyor belts and some benefits of each.
Up and Over Conveyor
These conveyor belts move products up a short incline and then over a hill. Sometimes they may move up a short incline with a steep drop-off at the top, too.
The benefits of using an "up and over" conveyor belt are:
- Flipping products without dropping or touching them by hand, which may be essential for food items and electronics
- During the automation process where it might be difficult to fit a human body in between machines, coating the top side of a product and then coating the bottom side as well
- Testing products for durability and flaws
Steep Incline Conveyor
Steep incline conveyors move products from a low point in one part of the factory to a higher point in another part of the factory (think moving grain from a thresher to a silo, if you need a visual). Usually produce in canning factories is moved this way, or recyclables that have been sorted and need to move to separate areas in the plant.
The benefits of using the steep incline conveyor are:
- No contamination or cross-contamination of foods during processing
- No sharp objects to touch, which may cut or injure the employees attempting to handle the objects
- Overhead conveyors in the next part of the plant can easily collect objects as they pass through the doorway that leads from the incline conveyor to the overhead one
Rotating Vertical Conveyor
Rotating vertical conveyors are often used in giant storage cabinets. They move columns and lines of buckets that frequently contain parts, tools and fasteners for your employees to use, but they can have other applications as well.
The benefits of a rotating vertical conveyor are:
- More floor space to work
- More storage space for equipment,tools and industrial supplies
- Better organization of equipment, tools and supplies
- Quick, easy access of everything stored in the vertical cabinet
Circular Conveyor
Circular conveyors are frequently used to cap or seal items. They may also be used on a larger scale to rotate cows in and out of a milking shed. (The cows stand on the circular conveyor and go for a few rounds on the belt while being milked. Then they step off and walk out--sort of a "cow carousel".)
The benefits of a circular conveyor are:
- All products (or animals!) are in perfect alignment so that the expected tasks are simultaneously accomplished with no errors
- Employees can quickly spot flaws when they do occur and pull the flaws from the circular conveyor or fix them as the "carousel" completes a round or two
- The circular conveyor can move as quickly or as slowly as you want/need it to, instead of one fast speed
Now you can decide for yourself which of these you need in your factory. Contact a supplier, like Queen City Material Handling Equipment, for more info.
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